Which Is Harder: Med School or Motherhood?

I was emailing with a writer friend recently about writing. She knows I was in the throes of motherhood, pregnancy, and birth while writing and editing my forthcoming book*. And I know she was in the throes of her medical residency while writing her first book, What Patients Taught Me. Being an avid Grey’s Anatomy dvd-renter, I could only imagine her work/love life along the lines of Meredith Grey. I told her writing a book on top of that must have been brutal.

This was her response:

Honestly, I can’t imagine there’s much similarity between parenthood and medical training. As a resident you can still go out for drinks, eat well every night, exercise all the time, get a good night’s sleep, wear interesting clothes, and in general function pretty intelligently for years at a stretch despite long hours at work. Not that it’s not hard, but honestly having a dog has been more of a life challenge.

Touche! Someone who, in one sentence, puts her finger on why being a parent is so dang hard. It reminds me of how, when the dreadfully charming Mr. Right and I went out sans Bungles of Joy on Inauguration Night (WOO-HOO!), I raised my margarita-on-the-rocks-extra-salt and said, “I feel like a REAL PERSON again!”

Except that, on our two-block walk back to our car from the festivities, I peed myself–I mean, pee dribbling into my strappy black sandals peed myself–not from over-consumption of alcohol, but from, well . . . all new moms, YOU know.